Based on these helpful pictures, the 4800H's max. power consumption is rated at 710 W compared to 660 W for the 3800H, so only a 50 W difference, although the former's channels are rated at 125 W vs. 105 W for the latter. Based on the sister Marantz Cinema AVR specs, these models will likely consume 100 W when idle. (I plan to measure and report that power consumption after my 3800H arrives tomorrow, and especially vs. the number of internal power amps "switched off," which I suspect means only the disconnection of the signals from the pre-pro, rather than the actual reduction/elimination of Class A/B bias in the output stages.)
Assuming that the "70% guarantee" still applies to these new Denon's models (same as it applies to the new Marantz Cinema AVRs), the actual total power with 5 channels driven will be 5*125*0.7 = 438 W for the 4800H and 5*105*0.7 = 368 W for the 3800H. Assuming that about half of the 100 W idle power goes to the pre-pro and the other half to the power amp, the 3800H's efficiency would be 368 / (660 - 50) = 60%, which is in the ballpark of what Class A/B amps can muster. For the 4800H, that would be 438 / (710 - 50) = 66%, which is perhaps a bit of a stretch (even though, I believe, the 4800H is supposed to have a beefier transformer and maybe bigger block caps).
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